Verso
A bookshop identity about the other side of the story.
01The problem
Verso is an independent bookshop with a small café, open late in a city center. It stocks fiction in translation and essays, and runs a members’ reading club.
Independent bookshops tend to brand themselves as cosy and nostalgic. Verso’s owners wanted the opposite, a shop that feels like a place for new ideas without losing its warmth.
The identity had to work in a 40 square meter shop, on a tote bag that travels, and on an events program updated every month. The program is the piece the team makes most often, so it had to be easy to make well.
02The decision
Verso names the left-hand page of an open book, and the other side of an argument. We built the identity around that second meaning, seeing the other side.
The mark is two halves, offset. The typography pairs a heavy lowercase grotesque with an italic book serif, two voices in conversation.
We chose a deep midnight blue over the expected warm browns. It reads as serious and nocturnal, which suits a shop that stays open until ten.
03The mark, and why it holds
Two half-discs face away from each other, one shifted down by a sixth of its height. Read one way it is an open book. Read another, it is a page mid-turn.
The offset is fixed at six units. Smaller offsets looked like printing errors at small sizes, and larger ones broke the circle apart.
The mark works in one color for stamps and spine stickers. Those are the shop’s most frequent applications, so we designed for them first.
04The system behind it
Midnight and Page carry nearly everything. Margin Red, named for proofreaders’ ink, is reserved for one element per layout, such as a date, a price or a correction.
The grotesque sets names and headlines in lowercase, which keeps the voice conversational. The italic serif handles quotes, staff picks and anything said in a bookseller’s voice.
Layouts borrow from book typography, with generous margins, running heads and folios. The monthly program reads like a short publication instead of a flyer.
05Out in the world
The members’ tote is the brand’s best advertisement. We kept it to the mark and one italic line, so it reads as a reader’s bag first and a shop bag second.
Shelf cards use the italic serif for staff recommendations. Each pick feels personal while staying unmistakably Verso.
The fascia and projecting sign use the mark alone at street level. Passers-by recognize the shape before they can read the name.
06The rulebook we left behind
The guidelines are designed as a small book, set in the typography they describe. They cover the events program template in detail, because it is the one piece the team produces every month.